As predicted, someone already downvoted this question. (They were probably not inclined to attempt an answer because of my obvious apprehension to this platform)

First, let me complain. I've been a developer now of 19 years and over the years I have asked hundreds of questions here, about 30% of the time I get my answer and the rest of the time I get snarky comments about how dumb I am for even asking it. So, to me this platform is toxic and one of the main reasons for people not liking software developers in general (probably more so towards women). Anyway, here is how I got my answer.

First, I tried it myself. I started this process three days ago with the intention described in the original question. None of the examples I had revealed the answer. I then started asking my developer friends. One of them responded exactly as I would have expected this platform to respond which was to say why am I even trying to do this and then offering other options which were not what I was looking for. Then eventually (about 20 minutes after I posted this) one of my good friends with 25 years of experience led me to the answer which was actually simple. Here is the answer (Copy it now before this entire post is flagged)

1. Go to the instructions I posted above. In those instructions are a link to an .ova file for the amazon image: https://cdn.amazonlinux.com/os-images/2.0.20241217.0/vmware/ (again, copy it now because Amazon likes to change their instructions often)

2. Install VMware Workstation

3. Install VirtualBox

4. Install any linux VM such as Ubuntu 24 on the Virtualbox instance

5. In your host machine, create a folder called seedconfig and in that folder create files called meta-data and user-data exactly as the instructions say (note these files do not have extensions)

6. In your Ubuntu machine, open a terminal and install genisoimage with the following command apt-get install genisoimage (don't try to download it from a webpage you'll just go into a loop downloading other garbage)

7. I'm a bit unclear on how I did this (because I've already removed the Ubuntu machine) but I think I created a duplicate folder with the meta-data and user-data files like I mentioned above but in the ubuntu machine.

8. from a terminal on the ubuntu machine navigate to the folder you just created and run the genisoimage command as the tutorial suggests: genisoimage -output seed.iso -volid cidata -joliet -rock user-data meta-data (this will generate a seed.iso file on your ubuntu machine

9. get that file over into your host machine somehow. I struggled with this because I couldn't just email it to myself (gmail flagged the file as a virus) and I couldn't create a shared drive right away because the instructions for doing that didn't work. I honestly don't know how i got the shared drive to work but I did and eventually copied it over to the host machine and put the file in the same location as the other two files on the host machine.

10. Using VMWare, create a virtual machine by pointing to the .ova file you downloaded earlier, run the machine. Note, you will not be able to log into this machine because the username/password is not set up yet.

11. While the machine is running, go to the configuration settings in VMware and find the place where you can add hardware. Add a new CD/DVD device and point that device at your seed.iso file. Make sure you check the boxes for 'Connected' and 'Connect at power on'

12. Reboot the machine

13. After it reboots you can now log in with your ec2-user and whatever password you put into your user-data file (the system will immediately ask for a new password)

your welcome.